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Monday, February 16, 2009

Carb-Conscious and South Beach Diet Friendly Flatbread Pizza to Make at Home

This Carb-Conscious Flatbread Pizza can help satisfy that pizza craving with less carbs!

I've had one of those weekends where nothing turns out in the kitchen and every photo looks like there was vaseline on the lens, and the one good thing that happened was that I figured out how to make this completely delicious Carb-Conscious and South Beach Diet Friendly Flatbread Pizza. I wish the photo was better, but trust me when I say this version of diet-friendly pizza is something I'll be making all the time! (Edit - updated with new photo August 2009. Still not the best, but better!)

So if anyone is wondering how Pizza can be diet friendly, let's talk about that first, starting with all the reasons regular pizza isn't good for the South Beach diet. There's the crust with white flour, pizza sauce which usually has sugar added, and cheese and toppings with too much fat. So what am I using to replace these decidedly not diet-friendly ingredients?

It was this new multi-grain version of FlatOut flatbread with flax that got me thinking about pizza. They're made with 100% stone ground whole wheat, and each one has 17 carbs, but 8 grams of fiber, and only 2.5 grams of fat. Depending on where you live, you might find flatbread that's even lower in carbs for your pizza base.

Muir Glen Pizza sauce has only 3 grams of sugar and 2 grams of fat in 1/4 cup and I'm only using two tablespoons on each pizza. (I froze the rest of the sauce in small containers, each with enough sauce to make two flatbread pizzas.)

I know plenty of people like vegetarian pizza, but when it comes to pizza, I'm all about the pepperoni. This turkey pepperoni only has 4.5 grams of fat in 15 pieces of pepperoni, just enough to cover the top of a flatbread pizza.

Finally, this low-fat pizza cheese is a blend of Part-Skim Mozarella, Provolone, Romano, and Parmesan cheese with only 6 grams of fat in 1/4 cup. I used 3/4 cup on each pizza but that was for two servings of pizza, so not too bad at all.

I hate figuring out nutritional information, but I know some of you will want to know, so I'm going to do it just this once. Roughly calculated (using my sixth grade math skills) with each flatbread pizza being two servings, this pizza comes out to about 16 grams of fat and 6 carbs per serving. You could use less cheese or veggie toppings if you wanted to make it even lower in fat, Of course pizza isn't for phase one, but this is something a South Beach dieter can enjoy once in a while for phase two and certainly okay for phase three. Convinced? Now here's how to make it.

Start by heating your cookie sheet for a few minutes in a 450F oven, then put the flatbread in the oven and toast one side for 2-3 minutes.

Turn the flatbread over and put a scant two tablespoons of pizza sauce on the toasted side. I spread it around with a pastry brush.

Put 1/2 cup cheese over the sauce, or here's where you could use less cheese if you'd like to be really virtuous.

Put turkey pepperoni over the cheese, or any other toppings you like. I made a version with South Beach friendly Canadian bacon that was also good.

I sauteed some mushrooms in a tiny bit of olive oil (use a non-stick pan) and put a layer of those on top of the pepperoni. This is definitely optional, or use any veggie that you like. I would pre-cook most veggies because the pizza only cooks for 7 minutes.

Finally, 1/4 cup more cheese over the top of the mushrooms and pepperoni. Some people don't put cheese over their pizza toppings, so this is definitely a personal preference (and again another place to save on fat if you skip this extra cheese.)

Preheat oven to 450F/230C. While oven heats, put flat cookie sheet into oven to heat. (If you have a pizza stone, that would work great here.) After about 5 minutes, remove cookie sheet, drizzle on about 1 tsp. olive oil, and spread around with paper towel. (Be careful not to burn yourself on the hot pan.) Put flatbread on pan, put in oven and cook 2-3 minutes, just until bottom of the flatbread is slightly toasted.

Remove cookie sheet from oven and turn flatbread over, then spread 2 T pizza sauce on the toasted side, spreading around with your fingers or a pastry brush so there is a very thin layer of pizza sauce on the entire surface of flatbread. Sprinkle 1/2 cup cheese over sauce, and spread around so it covers sauce. Layer pepperoni, then mushrooms, over the cheese, finishing with 1/4 cup more cheese.

Put cookie sheet back into hot oven and cook pizza 7-8 minutes, or until cheese is melted and slightly browned and pizza is done. Watch it carefully the last couple of minutes. Cut in half for two servings, and serve hot.

South Beach Suggestions:
With the suggested ingredients to make this South Beach Diet friendly, I'm guessing this would be approved for phase two or three of the South Beach diet. The nutritional information certainly compares favorably with the Frozen South Beach Deluxe Pizza, and would be about the same size serving. Served with a Perfect Restaurant Quality Salad, this would be a great dinner.

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49 comments:

This is such a great idea! It would be perfect for an after school snack too. I just bought FlatOut wraps for the first time the other day because they were a BOGO and I will definitely be making some pizza with them.

Where did you get that sauce and the turkey pepperoni? I've never seen either of those. I try to use like turkey chunks, but it's just not pepperoni! Sounds good. I'll be trying it. I've seen that Flat Out at Walmart, and I use it for turkey vegie roll ups quite often! Thanks for the pizza idea!

Thanks everyone for the nice comments about the pizza, even though I wish the top photo was a bit more drool-worthy! The pizza was great though. Lisa, I got the Pizza at Smiths (Kroger brand) and the pizza sauce from Whole Foods. The low-fat Pizza cheese is also Kroger Brand, and the FlatOut flatbread is also from Smiths.

Lisa, I wanted to let you know that I usually find tureky pepperoni in meat section (the part where they sell lunch meat), right next to the regular pepperoni. Hormel is the brand I have in my refrigerator right now.

Marmay, I'm not overly concerned about sodium, since my blood pressure is normal. The FlatOut has 210 mg sodium in one piece, you're only eating half a piece so that isn't much sodium in the bread. The highest sodium ingredient here is the turkey pepperoni, so if you're concerned about sodium you could skip that and use something else.

I bought the Italian herb Flat Out bread at Publix yesterday. I've never tried it but thought to myself that it would make a fantastic artichoke heart and goat cheese pizza. I got very excited to see this pizza post! I think I'll try that on my next Saturday night off. By the way, Flat Outs are on sale BOGO at Publix all this week.

Wow, this sounds delicious! Pizza is one of the things I miss the most. I will definitely try to find that flatbread. Any suggestions as to where? I haven't seen it a Whole Foods, but haven't really looked.

Thanks for the recipe! I'm new to your blog but I'm loving it! I also haven't see FlatOut around. I'm wondering if Whole Foods carries it as well. I've made the South Beach Diet pizza crust many times. Its really good - but quite time consuming. This looks so much easier. Thanks again!

I'm going to have to look for a local (East Coast) equivalent of the FlatOut. Maybe Joseph's Oat Bran & Flax Lavash would do the trick, though it's a bit thinner. I think the pizzas look great -- a definite bookmark!

I will have to have a look round for FlatOut, not seen it here, but there may be an equivellant. I'm not a pepperoni lover, so that means I can have more mushrooms & maybe some fresh pineapple. Great photo's! & thanks for taking the time with the nutritional value, I know it's a pain!

Hi Kalyn! Always love your blog! I'm here in SLC, too -- actually SOJO. (I'm not from NY, but think that's a cool way to say SJ, don't you?) This is a fantastic pizza idea I'll have to try. Thought I'd pass along a tip on sauteeing mushrooms that perhaps you may know. For an individual serving, I toss them into a bowl and pop into the microwave for a bit -- no water, just mushrooms! They sorta steam to perfection. I try to keep my oil calories where I'll love them the most! I 'saute' onions and green peppers the same way but add a tiny bit of water.

I've made a pizza with Flat Out before, even when I wasn't on SB, and it is DELISH. Good thing I love a thin crust.

I'm on Phase 1 right now, and interestingly, I've been making almost the exact same pizza, sans crust and mushrooms. Just heat the turkey pepperoni in micro for 30 seconds, spoon on a small amount of sauce and sprinkle on some cheese and nuke 10-15 more sec. Then just eat the pepperoni pizza bites...awesome! Barely even miss the crust.

These were delicious! Pre-SBD, I worked for a mystery shopping company and so ate pizza quite often. It's probably what I miss the most. I have been craving it really badly lately so we bought some of these flatbreads (finally found them) and have eaten these pizzas twice this week for dinner! Yummm! Thanks for the great idea!

WOW! This looks really good. I was searching for Pizza Recipes, I am planning to make a fantastic Home-Made Pizza for an upcoming Filipino Singles party for all my filipinos here in Great Falls. As a filipino woman who just moved in America, I really dont have a lot of experience making some good pizza. In the Philippines, we have different type of Food. When I cam here everytime I attend a party, there's always like chips, mexican food, and of course the Pizza. I think Pizza is great to have for parties. So, Really glad to find some good recipes and try. Experimenting and trying new recipe is fun to do, and everyday practice makes a perfect pizza! :)

I made 2 of these last night--delicious! My husband commented they were as good as any pizza we have had anywhere. Only thing different was I sauteed some spinach with the mushrooms and added banana peppers before putting in the oven. Looking forward to serving these as an appetizer at the next party :).

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